Thanks to pioneering initiatives in Indiana, New Hampshire, and
other states, Open Source Software is receiving increased attention in
US schools. This page contains several links to various resources
you might find interesting, along with information on a book
on this topic written by Dr. Thornburg. Short cuts to the main
sections of this page can be found on the panel to the left.

Latest news:
I did a small research project on one-to-one computing using Linux that can be found here. (posted 11/2007).

A report on Indiana's Linux on the Desktop initiative has been published by CoSN here. It makes for very good reading! (posted 2/5/2007).

Open Source Software (cross platform):
The following programs can save schools hundreds of dollars in software
expenditure per computer, and run on all common school platforms (Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux)

Other resources for free open source software exist. One nice compilation for Windows users is the Open CD.

If you are looking for an open source alternative to a commercial product, one place to start is the Osalt
site. Here you will see a variety of alternatives to some pretty
specialized programs - some of which may work better than others.

Another recently updated compilation of open source software for
Windows is the WinOSS collection. The CD image can be downloaded
here. And, there is another nice Windows collection, Software for Starving Students, that can be downloaded as well.

Open Source Resources for Educators:
The following list contains a few resource sites for the use of open
source software in schools (This list will be updated regularly):

Open Source HardwareOne of the more ambitious open source
projects involves the development of a replicator that can build 3-D
parts and machines. All aspects of this project -- software,
circuitry, and the replicator plans themselves, are open source, making
this an amazingly powerful project for schools. The main project
site is located at reprap.org

Two magazines that feature open source hardware designs are Make and Craft.
These quarterly publications are written for those who believe
that, if you can't open it, you don't own it. Many of the
articles contain full instructions for hacking or building all kinds of
nifty gadgets. For example, if you don't like the fact that the
iPod was not designed for easy battery replacement, you can build your
own MP3 player using the directions found here.

In the same spirit, the Make Blog has an open source gift guide with links to some amazing products, some of which are tailor made for student projects in school.

For example, Liberlab is a
French project (also available in English) for a cheap ($15) computer
interface for remote sensors. In addition to having students
build their own interface, they can design their own projects for
measuring temperature, light, etc. for a fraction of the cost of
prebuilt commercial products.Other Open Source Resources:
Open source is not just a concept for software and hardware, as the following sites show:

Open Textbooks and Courses:
The concept of openness does not just extend to computer software.
Textbooks are currently one of the largest material expenses in
many school districts, and there is movement toward addressing this
challenge by letting textbooks be written by large teams of volunteers
who then contribute their efforts to the open source world.
Alternatively, some textbooks are created by a single author who
then chooses to make her work available for free access by students and
teachers alike. At this point, the majority of free textbooks are
written for college audiences, but K-12 textbooks are under
development.

The
following links point to a few efforts in this domain, including
projects that create open courses.

Linux:
While excellent open source software exists for all computing
platforms, the Linux operating system is starting to get increased
attention in schools. Here are some reasons why:

Linux is now easy to install and use - as easy as any other operating system,

Linux-based computers outperform the same computers running other operating systems,

Linux is much more crash-resistant than Windows XP,

Excellent Linux packages (including a rich collection of commodity educational software titles) are available for free,

A growing number of specialized commercial educational software titles are being ported to Linux from Windows and Mac OS X.

Windows Vista requires more powerful computers than found in most classrooms.

For those wanting support from a company that has been in business for many years, the Novell OpenSUSE and SLED
distributions are worthy of attention. Both of these can be
downloaded and installed for free, although SLED has an annual fee for
automatic updates and has the kind of support expected of commercial
projects.

Of the various Linux implementations available now, one worthy of special attention for education is Edubuntu,
which can be downloaded for free and installed on as many computers as
you wish. This implementation supports a good graphical user
interface, includes a wide variety of free educational software, provides
massive libraries of additional free programs, and periodically updates
itself and installed software with a minimum of work on the part of the user. This is a special version of Ubuntu,
the most popular Linux distribution so far. The latest versions
of Ubuntu do an amazingly good job of recognizing various hardware
configurations, making setup very easy for first-time users.

Another specialized version of Ubuntu for creative professionals is called Ubuntu Studio. This version sets up your computer for commercial-grade sound and video editing, all based on free open source software.
While some are bold enough to install Linux on a computer without
trying it out first, many distibutions are available as "live CD's" (or
DVD's). After burning one of these discs, you can boot from it
directly to make sure that the distribution of Linux you are exploring
runs well on your computer.

To keep up with various distributions (distros) of Linux, be sure to visit DistroWatch on a regular basis!

Low cost computing:
Several companies and foundations are working diligently to overcome
the global digital divide. In many cases there is a belief that
the strategies used to bring the first billion users online will not
work with the next billion. The following links will connect you
with projects designed to address this issue, each in its own way.

David Thornburg's new book, When the Best is Free: An Educator's Perspective on Open Source Software, is the first devoted to cross-platform open source software appropriate for classroom use.

This books starts with an overview of the topic and makes the case that
well-chosen open source software not only can save schools and
districts tremendous amounts of money, but can also provide software at
least as good as the proprietary products they replace.

While not a detailed instruction manual for the numerous titles
explored in the book, When the Best is Free provides enough information
for teachers to decide which titles to install on their computers - no
matter if they are using Windows, Macintosh, or Linux-based systems.

Your copy of this excellent book is only $24.95. E-mail a purchase order for this amount to: